Old English Poetics

The Aesthetics of the Familiar in Anglo-Saxon England

Overview

Overview

A new approach to the study of Old English Poetry, featuring close reading of the text, its form and style.

Traditions are created and maintained by groups of people living in specific times and places: they do not have a life of their own. In this radical new approach to Old English poetics, the author argues that the apparent timelessness and stability of Old English poetic convention is a striking historical phenomenon that must be accounted for, not assumed, and that the perceived conservatism of Old English poetic conventions is the result of choice. Successive generations of poets deliberately maintained the traditionality of Old English poetry, putting it into dialogue with contemporary conditions to express critique and dissent as well as nostalgia. The author makes particular use of the rich language of treasure to be found in Anglo-Saxon verse to historicise her argument, but her argument has wide implications for how we approach the role of tradition in the poetry of earlier societies.

Dr ELIZABETH TYLER teaches in the Department of English and the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York.

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Table of Contents

Treasure and Old English Verse - Elizabeth M. TylerThe Collocation of Words for Treasure in Old English Verse - Elizabeth M. TylerFormulas and the Aesthetics of the Familiar - Elizabeth M. TylerVerbal Repetition and the Aesthetics of the Familiar - Elizabeth M. TylerPoetics and the Past: Traditional Style at the Turn of the Millenium - Elizabeth M. Tyler

Reviews

A valuable book for what it contributes to our understanding of Anglo-Saxon poets' composition processes and the poetic tradition. SPECULUM